Borough, state officials meet with residents again to address issues concerning problem property in the Butte

BUTTE — Members of the Butte community met on Wednesday night at Butte Elementary to discuss ‘the compound,’ a notorious problem property, and what could be done about it.

Alaska State Troopers B Detachment Commander Tony April, Sergeant Ron Hayes, Sen. Shelley Hughes, Rep. Cathy Tilton, Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey, borough attorney Nick Spiropolous, development services manager Alex Strawn and Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Program Manager Bill O’Connell attended to lend their expertise to the problem.

The Butte Elementary gym was packed with 83 members of the Butte community who showed up to see what could be done. Ben Ahrens said that individuals have parked vehicles on his property and left hypodermic needles and screws on his property and that nearly a dozen arrows had been shot onto his property. Neighbor Mike Sweeney has lived next to ‘the compound’ on South Bodenburg Loop for his whole life and said that the property has descended into a state of disarray in the last 30 years.

“We’re looking for solutions but I do want to tell you that this is not going to be flipping a switch,” Hughes said. “We’re in this together but it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Fern Downs runs a business out of her home teaching piano lessons and said that young students will no longer take lessons, fearing the unruly neighbors. During question and answer time, members of the community came up with various solutions that vary in legality. Suggestions from moving tents to the borough building property was popular. When one man said that he would put up $100 for legal fees, the crowd erupted with other residents saying they would match his donation.

“To protect my family I’ll do anything,” David Miller said.

Strawn was able to shed some light onto what the borough can do about the problem neighbors. While one ‘compound’ exists on South Bodenburg Loop, it is not the only compound on Bodenburg Loop with another near Pyrah’s Farm. Strawn detailed that the borough recently hired a fourth code compliance officer on Oct 1 and an additional attorney. Between the four officers, Strawn said that 200 open cases remain.

“Mr. Sweeney has been to my office many time saying what are you doing about it. I’ve told him this is priority one, two, and three,” Strawn said.

Strawn was asked to provide a report of the illegal activity the borough has documented on one specific property.

“We have a file about a foot thick on this,” Strawn said.

Spiropolous was able to give the gathered crowd some good news. Spiropolous told the crowd about the lawsuit the borough is currently pursuing against Mason Henry and Raymond Close, the property owners. Borough legal representation had filed charges on Sept. 19, 2018, in Superior Court. Spiropolous said that borough legal representation had moved for an injunction and the property was supposed to be in compliance from the junk and trash ordinance that illegal residents left on ‘the compound.’ Spiropolous then detailed the lengthy process to attempt to locate the property owners to serve them with the lawsuit.

“They’re hiding,” Spiropolous said. “We’re in uncharted territory with a lot of this stuff.”

Spiropolous said that process servers attempted to serve Henry and Close with the lawsuit between March 23 and May 16 and were unsuccessful. Henry did call the Borough Attorney’s office twice on March 28 and April 1. Spiropolous said that borough legal representatives filed default paperwork to receive a default judgement due to lack of response from Henry and Close. The affidavit from the process server was filed July 2 and an Aug. 5 hearing was set for eviction.

“Henry was not there. To this day he still has not answered our complaint because we sued him civiliy for all these junk and trash violations,” Spiropolous said.

The lawsuit calls for $837,000 in fines, $14,500 in attorney fees and $340 for costs at six percent interest. A judgement was expected on Oct. 7 for the default, but the courts have yet to make a ruling. During the commotion, Mark Chryson made a call and reported that Judge Zwink has filed a writ of assistance on the property, allowing Alaska State Troopers to evict squatters and trespass them from the property.

April said that at any given time, only five troopers are on call for the B Detachment of AST which serves the Mat-Su Valley. April said that 26 positions remain unfilled.

“Make no mistake, I care,” April said.